1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the provision of a rod kicker for the control of a sailing vessel rig.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional sailing vessel rig the sail is deployed on a mast and boom. When under sail, the sail of such a rig tends to lift the boom, in consequence it is necessary to provide a kicker device to act between the boom and the mast in order to draw the boom downwards and maintain sail trim. In its most primitive form the kicker consists of a simple rope and pulley assembly. However, in sailing yachts it is desirable to be able to support the boom in a horizontal or raised condition when not under sail in order not to present an obstruction and hazard to the crew. It has therefore become recent practise to employ a rod kicker which consists of a telescopic strut with some form of drive assembly to provide purchase between relatively extensible members of the strut whereby the rod kicker can be retracted under sail, but which has a limited degree of retractability in order to support the boom when not under sail.
The weakness of most existing designs of rod kicker comes from the problem that, it must be possible to set the boom at a height sufficiently low to provide for correct sail trim, but this is commonly a height lower than is convenient when not under sail. To solve this problem it is conventional to incorporate a spring member within the rod kicker which biases the rod kicker to an extended condition and hence lifts the boom. However, this means that the spring force must be overcome in order to trim the sail.